"Because of my work against the traffickers and my interviews given to the press, I will soon be killed," says Hamdy al-Azazy,

ROME/EL ARISH – June 25, 2012. The Egyptian activist, Hamdy al-Azazy, winner of
the 2011 Makwan Prize for Human Rights, has informed us that he fears his life
is in danger. The human rights defender from Arish (North Sinai Governorate,
Egypt) has received death threats from the traffickers in African refugees and
human organs after reporting them to the Egyptian authorities and international
institutions numerous times.

Azazy has documented and reported to the
Egyptian authorities, the UN and the EU institutions the names and locations of
the hideouts and meeting places of criminals such as Abu Senia (owner of the
“Ghazala” in the center of Arish, pictured), Abu Musa, Abu Ahmed, Abu Khaled and
many others.

The Egyptian activist, president of the New Generation
Foundation for Human Rights of Arish, is the main collaborator and observer for
EveryOne Group regarding the phenomenon of human and organ trafficking in Sinai.
Thanks to his reports, and the witness statements and photographs he has
collected, it has been possible to identify the prison camps in which the
African migrants (usually very young people) are being held.

The
prisoners are subjected to every kind of torture and humiliation – often while
their relatives abroad are listening to their cries of despair at the end of the
telephone line – until the ransom is paid that allows them to be released on the
border with Israel. Those who try to escape are killed in cold blood, while the
women prisoners are repeatedly raped, often in front of their husbands and
brothers.

If relatives are unable to pay the ransom demanded (from
$20,000 to $50,000 dollars according to which gang is holding them) the young
people are transferred to the organ market and are killed during the removal of
their kidneys.

Many corpses without kidneys have been found in the Sinai
Desert, while most of the bodies are burned.

THOUSANDS OF young people
from Eritrea, Ethiopia and other sub-Saharan nations have disappeared into thin
air in recent years. Azazy, working closely with EveryOne Group, ICER, the NGO
Gandhi, America Team for Displaced Eritreans and other humanitarian
organizations, has obtained the publication of many articles that show the
horrors taking place in Sinai, and later the release of several groups of
hostages.

The Egyptian activist worked alongside EveryOne Group and the
CNN to produce the documentary Death in the Desert, which broadcast images of
the martyrdom of the refugees in Sinai throughout the world. After the
documentary was shown, hundreds of refugees were released and – again under
Azazy’s supervision – a Beduin task force against human trafficking was created.
Working alongside the authorities, the task force, with Azazy’s constant
presence, led to the release of more groups and the arrest of several
traffickers.

Unfortunately, the criminals were soon released, as they are
connected to the jihadist movement. Most of the proceeds from trafficking in
human beings and organs, in fact, goes to finance fundamentalist armed groups,
primarily Hamas.

Many leaders in this trafficking are Hamas fighters: Abu
Khaled, Abu Ahmed, Abu Musa and others. The Israeli intelligence services are
aware of these connections and of the presence of Hamas in Arish and all over
Sinai, just as they are aware of the fact that the arms traffickers, the owners
of the tunnels that link Egypt to the Gaza Strip and the migrant and organ
traffickers are the same people.

The progressive affirmation of
fundamentalist movements in the new Egypt, culminating in the political
victories of the Muslim Brotherhood, has gradually reduced the pressure from the
police, army and intelligence services on the traffickers in human beings in the
Sinai.

CURRENTLY, ABOUT 1,500 refugees from Eritrea and other sub-Saharan
countries are in the hands of traffickers who are asking the families of the
hostages as much as $50,000 per head to ensure their release. The police are no
longer taking effective action against their activities, and the Beduin task
force created last year to combat the trafficking in human organs and slaves has
disbanded (after losing the support of the Egyptian government), leaving the
Sinai in the hands of local mafias.

“I feel that because of my work
against the traffickers and my interviews given to the press, I will soon be
killed,” Azazy writes to us, “pray for me.”

The most recent
anti-trafficking interview given by the activist appeared yesterday in the pages
of the newspaper Al-Ahram. EveryOne Group has reported the plight of Hamdy
Al-Azazy to the international organization Front Line Defenders (which protects
nonviolent activists around the world) and to the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Navi Pillay.

“Hamdy’s work is crucial, because at least the
horrors of the Sinai are being documented and reported,” said Every- One in its
statement. “It is essential that the humanitarian institutions that protect the
work of human rights defenders take urgent action to prevent Hamdy being harmed
by the lords of refugee trafficking in Africa and the Islamic fundamentalism
which profits from these criminal activities.”

Today EveryOne Group
contacted the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Egyptian authorities and
the EU institutions to organize relief action that will prevent the traffickers
and fundamentalist movements harming the courageous human rights defender from
Arish.

The writer is an Italian writer and journalist, author of essays
and articles on the Holocaust and contemporary history. He is also a defender of
human rights, co-president of EveryOne Group. (It is reprinted with the
author’s permission and was translated by Glenys Robinson.)